Mr. Nobody

Jan Van Dormeal, 2009 (9.5*) 
Belgium-Canada-France-Germany 

It's hard to describe this film without making it sound perhaps incohesive and out of control, but quite the contrary, this is a long, complex work of art that is very well constructed, and one which will warrant and reward the true cinema fan on repeat viewings.

What director Jaco Van Dormeal has done here is not new, he shows us alternate realities in one life, similar to the visual style used for the same by Tom Tykwer in Run, Lola, Run - and triggered by one incident involving a train, like Gwyneth Paltrow's character in Sliding Doors. As a child, Nobody is known as Nemo, and at age 9, he must choose which parent to live with when they seperate. The decisive scene takes place at a train platform, and little Nemo must either stay with dad or get on the train with mom. This being a film, he does both, and we see both lives.

This is really a science fiction story, which is about a Mr. Nobody, who is called that because they don't know his name, and he can't remember it, but it's Nemo, which we find out in flashbacks. Nemo is now the last living mortal at age 118, in a world where apparently everyone else no longer ages and dies (at least not naturally, I'm sure you can still blow people up or shoot them down, because, as they say here, "some people just need killin").

The film begins with a professional type suit, who is interviewing Mr. Nobody (for broadcast live to the masses), about his life and how he feels being the last mortal. When Nemo remembers his life, it's not always the same exact story he remembers, and this is the point of the film. It's not "a story" that matters, but that you travel the journey of life not knowing the final destination. This film has as many visual ideas as 10 average films, in fact, Van Dormeal spent nine years on this one project from writing to completion, and it shows.

There are so many mind-boggling images in this, that its best not to describe the film at all, but to urge everyone to watch it, then watch it again. There is one problem: it's not available at Netflix, you'll have to either borrow or buy it on dvd. You also want only the director's cut (it's 157 minutes, the original is 141, so it's hefty in either format), that's the version I saw and it has one added scene I thought particularly important: Nemo is going through a car wash inside his car, and we see closeups of all the action on the windshield, which is uncannily like nebula activity in space: the macrocosm becomes the microcosm. If you don't understand that, then you may not like this film, and you probably didn't enjoy The Tree of Life either, another visual masterpiece.

Jared Leto stars in this, that's him in makeup as the 118 year old man (Mr. Nobody) as well. He had just made Aronofsky's incredible Requiem For a Dream (2000), so apparently he only stars in a director's "magnum opus", or greatest of his work. He should be a better known actor, he's quite accomplished in every film I've seen. Canadian director-actress Sara Polley (Dawn of the Dead, Go, The Sweet Hereafter) plays one of his wives, Diane Kruger (Inglourious Basterds, Troy) another, and Viet actress Linh Dan Pham (Indochine) the third. All are perfect for what the film required - of the three, Polley is the most accomplished actor having won 31 awards so far, and she shows it here.

This may bore or confuse the more literary cinemaniacs, those who want a beginning, middle, and end of one story. To me, that's like criticizing the impressionists because the realists painted the same scenes more realistically. Do you want life to imitate art, or can art just be the creative expression of an artist's inner philosophy? This film toys with the idea of "string theory", which always baffled me, but the idea is that there may be several universes or realities occuring at the same time, it depends on your choices in life. That's such a scary thought to some, that one reviewer said he couldn't leave his house for three days after seeing this film!

This film is going into my top 100, easily (out of about 10,000 seen, the top tenth of one percent), and also on my short list of must-see science fiction-fantasy films, which is less than 50 at this point. To which I would only say, as Rossanno Brazzi told Katharine Hepburn in Summertime, "You are hungry, senora - eat the ravioli!" EAT THIS MOVIE! Then again, and again..

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Melancholia

Lars von Trier, 2011 (8.4*)
This is a rarity among films, a science fiction film that has little to do, really, with that aspect of the story. Instead, the fact that a hidden planet has emerged from behind the sun and is heading on a path toward earth really is little more than a metaphor for the characters psychogically complex stories.

Von Trier has created his most mesmerizing film to date, full of dreamy, surrealistic images more reminiscent of painters like Magritte, De Chirico, and Dali, than any film references (see film still at the bottom) – except perhaps early Antonioni. 

Kirsten Dunst won five acting awards for her gutsy portrayal of a newlywed bride mired in her own melancholia, and whose dysfunctional personality seems to deteriorate as the planet, named Melancholia, moves closer to earth. Charlotte Gainsbourg plays her long-suffering sister, who seems determined to take care of her sister in spite of the apparent hopelessness of the situation, as her personal demons seems to have no cause or origin.

Like most of von Trier’s films, this one is also slow to develop, and eerily like a Bergman film of introspection and inner turmoil, and may not hold the attention of the average viewer, but if you stick with this one you will be surprised and rewarded, I believe, especially in comparison to his other efforts. This is the type of film rated higher by critics (80 at Metacritics) vs fans (7.2 at IMDB), but those are often the more unique and unforgettable films, as critics see so many of the mundane variety that it takes something different to wake them up from mediocrity.

One of the many surrealistic and artistic images in Melancholia

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Nosferatu

aka Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens
(Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horrors)
F.W. Murnau, 1922, Germany, bw (8.4*)
One of the first freaky vampire films from one of the first great directors of the school known as German Expressionism, this character is truly horrifying. Admittedly a little dated in the modern era of special effects, but imagine seeing this type of film in 1922, there had probably only been a handful of scary films made by that time, so there was nothing as evil-looking as this in the early days of cinema.

Murnau designs his films like 19th century art, to control the mood and atmosphere of the story, and transfer that mood to the audience to enhance he story - remember they had no sound to make creepy horror effects, no squeaking board or doors, no howling winds or ghosts, no screaming, just silent horror.

This is No. 48 on our compendium of all film polls

Fans of Murnau or German expressionism should also check out Sunrise: A Story of Two Humans, winner of 3 Oscars® at the 1928 awards, for artistic picture, actress Janet Gaynor, and cinematography.

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M.

Fritz Lang, 1931, bw (9.0*)
No. 11 on our compendium of all polls, No. 55 on the IMDB 250
M. is the classic Fritz Lang suspense thriller in which someone is murdering children in a German city, the police can't catch him, and the manhunt is so intense that it's interrupting all the normal crime, so even criminals enlist in the killer's search.

Peter Lorre is the psychotic serial killer, in a chilling performance, one that put him on the map as a creepy actor that can sell a sociopathic character. Lang did a great job capturing both the uneasiness and the complexity of the characters, as well as creating the atmospheric mood with lighting and cinematography, characteristic trademarks of German expressionism. Lang is more interested in the effects of the killings on the town than the actual crimes.

Like Murnau (Sunrise, The Last Laugh, Nosferatu) and Pabst (Pandora's Box), Lang is a must-see for fans of early cinema, particularly German, and before they came to Hollywood, which makes M. essential viewing as well. His 1926 masterpiece, Metropolis, is the most famous and significant early science fiction film, the same can be said for this film in the genre of crime.

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Metropolis

Fritz Lang, Germany, 1927, silent, bw (7.8*)
[Restored version]
Of course this looks pretty dated now, but when Fritz Lang created his science fiction masterpiece, there were no films as experimental or as striking an individual vision in the history of cinema up to that point. This version has some lost footage restored that was found in 2008 in a film warehouse in Argentina, who didn't return the print when WW2 broke out in Europe, so this is the most complete version available since it's release as all the other copies were destroyed by Allied air raids.

This story is from a novel by Thea von Harbou, who also wrote the screenplay. The heavily symbolic story involves a society where the wealthy live in a club above ground that resembles heaven, while the workers live and work underground in repetitive drudgery running giant machines. Lang's entire film is an indictment of a mechanized world usurping human individuality and choice, where there is no escape from the 'worker's hell' underground.

One particular woman, an angel named Maria, is a voice against the system who incites the workers to stand up. Meanwhile, the head capitalist has an inventor with a female robot he calls "Machine Man", who gets used in a political scheme to destroy Maria and a mysterious coming 'mediator', who can unite the two factions.

A lot of this story is pretty corny ("the head and the hands need a heart to unite them"), yet you can see that it influenced later films like Chaplin's Modern Times, Ridley Scott's Blade Runner, and even the dark mood of Gotham City in the Batman films. In fact, it was decades before sf films even had this much vision again.

This is a must for fans of German expressionism, it's probably the finest example of that movement. It's #96 on the IMDB top 250 films, which is probably a bit high, but you can see its influence in cinema history.

One of the first recipients of  our World Film Awards, as we awarded 15 silents films first.

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Downfall

Oliver Hirschbiegal, Germany, 2004 (8.5*)
Truly one of the best WW2 films, based on the book by Hitler's last private secretary, Downfall tells of the last days of the Third Reich within Hitler's bunker. Alexandra Maria Lara (Youth Without Youth, Control, The Reader), a Romanian actress whose family moved to Germany is Trudl Junge, the woman who survived those final days in order to bring this story to the world.

Bruno Ganz is excellent as Hitler, without being a parody or impressionist, but capturing the moody personality in his darkest days. There are some side stories just as interesting, such as one of a kid of 12 who takes out invading Soviet tanks in the streets of Berlin with the Russian invention of Molotov coctails. He becomes one of the last heroes given medals by Hitler outside the bunker.

This would now make a good companion film to Judgment at Nuremberg, which placed those surviving war criminals on trial, those who didn't commit suicide along with Hitler and others who didn't want to face a world without their beloved Fuehrer.

This is now one of the highest ranked war films at IMDB, #93 currently on their top 250. It won 15 of 29 award nominations, usually from critics, such as Online Film Critics, London, and Kansas City; it was also nominated for the foreign language film Oscar®, losing to Spain's The Sea Inside.

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Triumph of the Will

[Our 600th film reviewed]Leni Reifenstahl, Germany, 1935 (8.2*)
This is a hard film to recommend, but an important documentary for both historical events covered as well as pioneering film techniques. Leni is a former actress turned filmmaker as Hitler's chosen film propagandist. In her first major film here, she documents the rise of the Nazi party in Germany.

She later apologized for the film, but it's so eerie to watch today that it's effective as anti-propaganda as well, likely scaring far more people than it inspires. She went on to direct the documentary of the 1936 Olympic games in Berlin, in Olympia, also a classic of film technique. She buried a camera in the earth to get a shot of the starting line of the 100 meter dash. In Triumph, she uses striking geometric compositions to amplify the impact of crowd scenes, into what could rightfully be called, in Clockwork Orange vernacular, real 'horrorshow', something so terrifying that you have to watch it.

Down a point or so in the rating for being blatant propaganda, but it's still cinematic art, and influenced many other directors.

Note: posted on Pearl Harbor day, as this film shows the seeds of war being sown in the 30's

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Aguirre, the Wrath of God

Werner Herzog, Germany, 1972 (8.6*)
German director Werner Herzog often became obsessed with films about obsessed men in pursuit of personal dreams above all other concerns in life. He often chose German actor Klaus Kinski because, as Herzog said, "he was quite mad", and his elastic face seems to project the madness outward for the world to see. Their confrontations are legendary, with the crew having to save Herzog from Kinski's homicidal attacks on occasion.

Kinski is the perfect choice to play Aguirre, an obsessed Spanish conquistador in South America who leads a small band of explorers on a quest for the golden city of legend, El Dorado. This is an adventure of Joseph Conrad (Heart of Darkness) proportions, as the descent into the wilderness coincides with Aguirre's spiritual descent.

Herzog and Kinski work best together when filming Europeans in primitive settings - Fitzcarraldo is perhaps their best and most fully realized adventure, about an opera lover determined to bring a steamship into the jungle rainforest to provide a floating platform for opera performances. The documentary Burden of Dreams shows just how obsessed Herzog became to achieve this film.

Here, in a film made during a hiatus in the Fitzcarraldo shooting in South America, we get to witness some of Kinski's best acting as a madman descending further into madness in search of the yellow metal. Fans of Herzog, Kinski, or John Huston's Treasure of the Sierra Madre will like this one.

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Cobra Verde

Werner Herzog, Germany, 1988 (7.8*)
Another of director Herzog's adventure films in South America with madman actor Klaus Kinski. Kinski here plays a local Spanish bandit, named Francisco Manoel da Silva, but called Cobra Verde by the locale natives, a man avoided by all when he wanders into town.

A local plantation owner decides he is just the sort of man to oversee his slave operation for his massive sugar cane farms. He soon impregnates all his daughters, and as punishment, is sent to Africa to manage slave procurement there, work not completed in a decade due to local uprisings. The authorities are certain they are sending Cobra Verde off to his death.

However, like Herzog's other films with Kinski, this is about a white man surviving and interacting with local indigenous populations. Though not as fully satisfying as Fitzcarraldo and Aguirre, The Wrath of God, this is the last of their five films together as Kinski died soon after this release, and is still a worthy entry into what could be called the "South American Trilogy" of the Herzog-Kinski collaborations.

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Beyond Silence

Caroline Link, 1996, Germany (8.5*)
Director Link's first film, and a very good debut film as it won 10 international awards at various film festivals, and garnered a nomination as best foreign language film, an award Link later won in 2002 as director of Nowhere in Africa.

This is a very unique family film, as Lara, wonderfully played when older by Sylvie Testud, who won one acting award for her role, is born to deaf-mute parents, and grows up in a world of silence, as she communicates to them using sign language. Her aunt Clarissa, a beautiful readhead played by Sibylle Canonica, is a clarinetist and catalyzes Lara's interest in music by giving her the first clarinet she owned as a child for Christmas. Lara quickly takes to the instrument, which gives her rather drab life something meaningful.

Her dad, well played by Howie Seago, has been at odds with music since childhood, as his sister often played with their dad, who played piano, leaving the deaf child out of the interaction, so he prefers a house of silence. This drives Lara to seek a music education in Berlin, where she moves at the invitation of her aunt.

This is a beautiful story, without histrionics or sentimentality, something rare in films of this nature. Link always shows a deft touch in daughter-parent relationships, something she explored again in Nowhere in Africa. This is a very rewarding, touching story of a young girls coming-of-age amid harsh circumstances.

Awards page at IMDB

Note: if you like this film, be sure to see Chen Kaige's Together, about a young virtuoso violinist in China and his father, who will go to any length to see his son succeed in music.

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Touch the Sound

Thomas Riedelsheimer, 2004, Germany (8.2*)
The most sought after percussionist in the world is Dame Evelyn Glennie, a dimunitive woman from Scotland who was voted "Scottish woman of the decade". She is considered to be the first person to have a career as a solo percussionist. She can play anything that can be beaten with sticks, plastic tubes, horsehair bows, or really anything handy she happens to pick up. Even more amazing: she started going deaf at age 8, and by age 12 was designated to be 'profoundly deaf'. She wanted to continue her music career, so she was taught how to feel the sound of drums by touching them with her hands, and she can now perceive tones in her body.

In this film, director Riedelsheimer explores not only her music, but also what drives her creativity internally. She knows how to appreciate a Zen-like silence, saying that 'silence is one of the loudest sounds she's heard'. We are shown Dame Evelyn playing solo, creating improvisations with fellow experimental musician Fred Frith in a large vacant warehouse, and playing drums with some Japanese koto drummers, who say that it all comes from breathing.

She is an amazing woman, knighted before age 40, and is unlike anyone else you will see on film. A virtuoso adult musician, she seems to have the same inquisitive curiosity about sound that children have exploring their surroundings. This film won 5 awards at film festivals, most for best documentary. I lowered the rating a little due to less concentration on Evelyn's music and more on the visual aspects of her life.

Thomas Riedelsheimer makes gripping documentaries about uniquely talented individuals that most will never hear in the mass media. Rivers and Tides is about environmental artist Andy Goldsworthy, and is an arresting visual film, while this one is more awe-inspiring for it's audio.

Here is a clip of Evelyn playing a marimba solo from the film:

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The White Ribbon

Michael Haneke, Germany, 2009 (8.4*)
aka Da Weisse Band
Palm D'Or, Cannes
In a small German village in 1910, a series of bizare sadistic acts begins with a doctor on his horse being thrown by a nearly invisible wire strung across his daily path, resulting in his hospitalization and the horse's destruction. While is recuperates in a nearby town, more incidents occur.

The local preacher, eerily portrayed by Burghart Klaussner, is shown to cane his six children when they are late for dinner, while other parents react similarly when their children disobey, one even attacking his son with a military sword. Meanwhile, the local teacher, played by Christian Friedel, begins to investigate the incidents on his own, suspecting that some of his students may be to blame as many children in the village seem to have the mean streak of bullies, and they congregate in gang-like groups, often acting suspicious.

Micheal Haneke has given us a mystery in classic bw that seems to imply a growing inclination towards fascism in the grassroots areas of Germany which may have resulted in full-blown Naziism as these kids grew up - they would all be young adults in the 20's and 30's. This film won't suit all tastes, but is rewarding for those willing to be patient and examine complex human motivations through cinematic art.

This understated film has won 17 international awards so far, including the Palm D'or at Cannes, a Golden Globe for foreign film, and garnered an Oscar® nomination for foreign film, and is nominated for 13 German film awards, yet to be presented.
The awards page at IMDB

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The Story of the Weeping Camel

Byambasuren Davaa, Luigi Falorni, Germany, 2003 (8.9*)

This German documentary follows a family of Mongolian shepherds' daily lives. After the camel birthing season, the last newborn colt, a pretty white boy, is rejected by his mother. The shepherd sends his two sons on a trip to a nearby town to find a healing musician to help the mother accept her offspring.

We follow the daily life of the shepherds, which is primitive and weather-beaten in the harsh, beautiful Gobi desert, yet they also have total freedom. They can simply move their animals to another location if they want and be elsewhere in a day. In the towns, satellite tv is available and many ride motorcycles rather than camels, so the modern world is there if they want it - they chose to continue to live simply.

This is a beautiful and unusual story in a beautiful setting, even more amazing since it's a documentary - we follow the story of the young rejected camel, played by Botok with Ingen Tenne as the mother camel, as it plays out for the shepherds. This story that seems a much legend as truth won several film festivals, usually the audience award for foreign film, and was an Oscar nominee for documentary. Awards page at IMDB

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Olympia

Leni Riefenstahl, Germany, 1938, bw (9.2*)

This historic documentary shot by the Nazi propaganda machine's chief filmmaker still looks modern today. The idea originally was to show the glory of Germany and document their many Olympic victories in a fine film by their top director, but the politics were taken out when black American Jesse Owens and others stole the thunder, leaving the Germans with little more than this filmed record.

Riefenstahl pioneered a number of techniques that will look more commonplace today. One that stands out here is burying a camera at the starting line of the 100-yard dash to capture a ground-eye view of that race's tension just before the gun. She always manages to interest the eye even when the action isn't so riveting, and is a master of b&w composition and lighting.

Denounced by many for being the film voice for the Nazis, Riefenstahl later apologized for making Triumph of the Will (1935) in particular, about the rise of Hitler and the party, and attempted a normal film career afterwards, but never again approached the artistic achievement of these two documentaries.

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Run, Lola, Run

Dir: Tom Tykwer, 1998, Germany (9.4*) 

An exciting, music video driven film, a crime film on adrenaline. Franka Potente’s boyfriend Manni (Moritz Bleibtreu) has just lost a huge sack of money from a drug deal, and she has 20 minutes to get the money to him to give to the boss or he’s history. The action starts very quickly, from his frantic phone call in the beginning, which comes as she's watching a music video on tv and which starts her running, and never lets up - there are more visual ideas here per minute than any film other film I've seen. When she passes people on the street, you briefly see their life in cinematic flashes.

Brilliant camerawork and editing, with some split screen shots that must be seen in widescreen (earlier dvd's were only available in full-screen, but thankfully that's now been corrected). Much of the action occurs in 'real time', with a countdown mechanism but which is uniquely employed here in a manner never seen before. The film is structured around a plot twist I won't reveal but one that makes this film truly unique. And, yes, she sure could run!

This visual style, and showing alternate realities for characters inspired Jaco Van Dormeal's 2009 science fiction masterpiece, Mr. Nobody - a great film, all fans of Lola should definitely check that one out.

[Updated: 12.11.12]

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The Testament of Dr. Mabuse

Fritz Lang, 1933, Germany (8.0*)
This is an amazing film for its era, also known as "Crimes of Dr. Mabuse". Those who had Poltergeist make the hair on their neck stand up will likely feel chills from this film as well. Master director Fritz Lang is more well-known for "M" (Peter Lorre as a child killer) and the SciFi classic "Metropolis" (he likes the "M" thing!), yet this film has more radical (ie, advanced) film techniques for the time, especially special effects of ghosts. The film is about a psychological study of a madman, Dr. Mabuse, in an asylum for 10 years, whose writings have progressed from rampant hallucination to lucid descriptions of perfect crimes.

This is all innocent until the crimes start being committed, exactly as Mabuse wrote them. A police detective is baffled and investigates the case, while the psychiatrist is obsessed with studying Mabuse. We see some incredible ghost effects, as an apparently "projected ghost" from the still living Dr.Mabuse talks to, and hands items to the living. This is an excellent early crime (and horror) film, of course, dated by today's standards, but should be seen by all film students, and fans of old crime movies. This film makes all the "critics all-time best" lists. In German with subtitles.

Note: known as "expressionism", these are films that show a character's inner torment as external visualizations in film. Lang hated the term but was its best practitioner.

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Good Bye, Lenin!

Wolfgang Becker, 2003, Germany (9.2*)
This is a terrific and heartwarming comedy about the fall of the wall and the GDR, German reunification, and in time becomes a poignant tale of a son's love for his socialist mom. The mother, touchingly portrayed by Katrine Sass, turns her interest to the socialist government after her husband leaves her with two kids, defecting to the west.

One day she has a heart attack while witnessing a demonstration of students at the wall, and goes into a coma just when history is about to be made; she misses the collapse of the wall and the East German government. When she awakens (now in just Germany), her kids go to great extremes to hide the world-changing events from her, with hilarious results. A filmmaking buddy of the son, lovingly played by Daniel Bruhl, helps them in a way I won't spoil. You'll never see a son, go through this much out of love for his mother. A totally original story, reminds one of the old classic comedies, and like those, its a film you can watch again and again. One of the best German films.

This film still has a popular web site:
Good Bye Lenin Website

Other great German films: Nowhere in Africa, The Lives of Others (both Oscar® winners for foreign film), and Werner Herzog's Fitzcarraldo

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The Tunnel

Roland Suso Richter, 2001, Germany (8.3*)
Based on a true story from the 50’s of East German swimmer Harry Melchior who defected to West Germany then enlisted the aid of an odd assortment of diggers to see if they could dig a 145-meter tunnel to the east to help their relatives also escape to the west. This is a riveting film, if lengthy (nearly 3 hrs), that manages to maintain its tension throughout, and is a better escape film than the obviously Hollywooden Great Escape, and without any big stars as well. Mixing dark color with some grainy black & white sections, director Ricther manages to maintain a near documentary feel in a story that should have been told decades ago. Reminiscent of the Leon Uris novel Mila 18, about trapped Jews tunneling out of the Warsaw ghetto.

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Gloomy Sunday

Rolf Schubel, 1999, Germany (8.3*)
This is a very interesting romantic story that eventually involves the holocaust. In a gourmet restaurant in Budapest, the owner, pianist, and a visitor from Germany all fall in love with the ravishing hostess, played by Erika Marozsan. Over time, she, the pianist and owner all form a close knit friendship and agree having half of Erika is better than nothing. The pianist writes a song for the hostess, called Gloomy Sunday, that eventually becomes a famous song, with unexpected consequences. The rise of the Nazis also enters their lives as the stories of all four people are connected by the war. Very good sleeper film, good acting, sensitive and not overt like many of these, and with a major plot twist or two as well.

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The Harmonists

Joseph Vilmsmaier, 1997, Germany (7.7*)
This interesting film tells the true story of a 30's vocal group called the Comedian Harmonists, very popular in Germany just before the Nazis come to power. The leader the group is inspired by American music, especially jazz, and creates complex vocal arrangements of popular songs. A kind of "Bavarian Transfer"? There's some great music here, as well as an attempt to show the creative process at work. Of course, eventually everything changes in Germany, and this story was almost forgotten in history. If you like 30's musicals, check this out.

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